Google’s Ironwood Chip Just Crushed the AI Game 🚀

Meet Ironwood: Google’s beastly new chip built for the Age of Inference, scaling AI to mind-blowing heights (literally 42.5 exaflops 😳).

🔍 Google unveils Ironwood, its 7th-gen AI chip, designed specifically for real-time inference tasks

⚡ Processes AI models at massive scale—up to 9,216 chips per pod and 42.5 Exaflops

💡 Powers “thinking models” like Gemini & AlphaFold with unprecedented speed and efficiency

💧 Uses advanced liquid cooling + 2x perf/watt over its predecessor (Trillium)

🌍 Signals the dawn of the “Age of Inference” in AI evolution

• Who: Google (Alphabet Inc.)

• What: Launch of Ironwood — a new generation of Tensor Processing Unit (TPU)

• When: Announced during Google Cloud Next ‘25

• Where: Google Cloud Platform (GCP) ecosystem

• Why: To dominate the growing demand for real-time AI inference and beat industry reliance on Nvidia

Let’s rewind.

While the world’s been buzzing about OpenAI, Nvidia chips, and “who runs the best chatbot,” Google’s been quietly plotting something big. For over 10 years, it’s been building a secret AI weapon—custom TPUs that power its own massive products like Search, YouTube, and Gmail.

Now? It’s finally letting us peek under the hood.

Enter Ironwood — a chip that doesn’t just process AI… it thinks ahead 🧠✨

Ironwood is Google’s seventh-generation TPU—and it’s unlike anything we’ve seen before..

Ironwood is optimized for inference, which means it’s built to run pre-trained models like ChatGPT or Gemini in real time, providing results instantly as users interact.

That’s a huge shift in AI strategy—from reactive to proactive intelligence.

Yes, you read that right. One Ironwood pod is more powerful than the world’s fastest supercomputer.

Air cooling? That’s so 2022. Ironwood uses liquid cooling to stay frosty while running continuous, heavy workloads.

Result?

✅ Better thermal management

✅ Sustained high performance

✅ Nearly 30x more power efficient than Google’s first TPU in 2018

Whether you're training a Large Language Model (LLM) or running real-time Mixture of Experts (MoE) tasks, Ironwood has you covered.

• Optimized for sparse and dense models

• Minimizes data latency with fast on-chip memory access

• Integrates into Pathways, Google’s distributed ML runtime, for maximum scalability

Ironwood isn’t just for chatbots. It’s designed to tackle:

• 🧫 Biomedical simulations like AlphaFold

• 📈 Complex financial modeling

• 🔬 Scientific computation

• 📦 Advanced recommendation systems

Because the future isn’t one-size-fits-all—and neither is AI.

Google is quietly building a vertically integrated AI stack:

Custom chips + custom models + custom software + cloud services.

In a world where AI power = global influence, this move positions Google to control:

• The infrastructure

• The tools

• The distribution

  ...and eventually, the economics of AI itself. 💸

That’s exactly what Google just did.

Here’s how to think ahead and apply what you’ve learned:

• 🔍 Watch the Shift: The AI race is moving from training models to inference. Expect more tools focused on responsiveness and real-time insight.

• 🛠️ Build with Inference in Mind: If you’re developing AI apps, optimize for serving large models, not just training them.

• ☁️ Evaluate Cloud Providers: Consider Ironwood’s potential in your AI stack—especially if you're using Google Cloud.

• ♻️ Focus on Energy Efficiency: As AI power consumption soars, performance per watt will become a competitive edge.

• 🤖 Explore Pathways: Dive into Google's ML stack (especially if you’re building scalable systems).

• 🧪 Experiment with Model Architectures: MoEs, LLMs, and sparse models are the future. Ironwood is built to support them—maybe your startup should too.

• 📬 Stay Subscribed to Think Ahead With AI for deep dives like this that turn hype into clarity.

🌱 TAWAI’s Vision: Planting Seeds for the Next Generation of AI Leaders

Let’s be real:

The future is being shaped by those who understand technology, humanity, and systems thinking—not just those who know how to prompt a chatbot.

That’s why TAWAI is stepping up, not just to observe the future but to co-create it.

We’re launching the Young Global Leaders Lab—a flagship program designed to empower emerging thinkers, makers, and leaders with the mindset, mentorship, and machine intelligence fluency needed to lead in an AI-powered world.

The Young Global Leaders Lab is not your average leadership accelerator.

It’s where:

• 🧠 Philosophy meets Machine Learning

• 🌍 Civic imagination meets exponential tech

• 💥 Bold ideas meet practical prototyping

The lab is built on four foundational pillars:

1. AI Fluency

   Learn to understand and apply generative AI, LLMs, and ethical tech—without needing a PhD.

2. Futures Thinking

   Develop the mental tools to forecast trends, navigate uncertainty, and design for multiple futures.

3. Systems Leadership

   Cultivate the emotional intelligence and strategic insight to lead complex, multi-stakeholder change.

4. Build What Matters

   Learn to prototype solutions, not just pitch ideas—hands-on with real-world challenges and global mentors.

• Young professionals (18–30) with bold ideas

• Social innovators and civic dreamers

• Tech-savvy creatives who want to make impact

• Underrepresented voices ready to be heard

• Future-forward leaders with curiosity, not credentials

📅 6-month hybrid fellowship

🌐 Global online community + local meetups

👩‍🏫 AI leadership masterclasses, sandbox labs, guest mentors

🧩 Challenge-based learning with real-world partners

🏁 Final showcase to spotlight ideas + ventures

This isn’t about churning out the next generation of AI influencers.

It’s about cultivating wise, grounded, and world-aware innovators—leaders who will build AI for humanity, not just for efficiency.

TAWAI believes the future should be designed by those who:

• Ask better questions 🤔

• Build for collective good 🌱

• Think beyond today’s headlines 📈

1. Runway ML 🎬

Use Case: Creative AI for video, storytelling, and content generation

• Perfect for young leaders in media, activism, and storytelling

• Use AI to edit videos, remove backgrounds, generate motion graphics

• Enables powerful visual storytelling without technical know-how

2. Notion AI 🧠

Use Case: Productivity + Knowledge Management

• Write smarter, organize ideas, and plan projects collaboratively

• Great for fellows managing projects, journaling ideas, or prototyping strategies

• AI-powered assistance helps synthesize and summarize content effortlessly

3. Perplexity AI 🔍

Use Case: Research and knowledge discovery

• Combines chatbot UX with real-time citations from the web

• Supports evidence-based decision making and insight generation

• Ideal for young researchers and systems thinkers who need quick, reliable info

4. Figma + Genius AI Plugin 🎨

Use Case: Design + Prototyping

• Figma is a collaborative design tool, and Genius AI helps automate UI generation

• Empowers non-designers to visualize solutions and build user-first prototypes

• Perfect for social impact innovators building MVPs and interfaces

5. ChatGPT (Custom GPTs) 🤖

Use Case: Coaching, brainstorming, simulation

• Create your own AI mentors, tutors, or co-pilots for project-based learning

• Fellow can build custom GPTs for learning AI ethics, leadership simulations, or personal productivity

• Great for enhancing self-led learning and idea incubation

1. Bill Gates says AI will replace humans in most tasks except for these three professions

2. Insult To Life Itself": Ghibli Founder Hayao Miyazaki On AI-Generated Art

3. Perplexity AI’s Aravind Srinivas adds Bhagavad Gita twist to ChatGPT’s viral Ghibli-style image trend

4. OpenAI adopts rival Anthropic’s standard for connecting AI models to data

5. AI Safety update: Character.AI introduces weekly reports for parents on teens’ chatbot usage.

Join Our Elite Community For Comprehensive AI Mastery

🚀 Welcome to TAWAI ‘Generative AI In A Box’ Membership! 🌐🤖

Embark on an exhilarating journey into the transformative world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with our cutting-edge membership. Experience the power of AI as it revolutionizes industries, enhances efficiency, and drives innovation.

Our membership offers structured learning through the Generative AI Program and immerses you in a community that keeps you updated on the latest AI trends. With access to curated resources, case studies, and real-world applications, TAWAI empowers you to master AI and become a pioneer in this technological revolution.

Embrace the future of AI with the TAWAI ‘Generative AI In A Box’ Membership and be at the forefront of innovation. 🌟🤖

Sanjukta Chakrabortty
Gen. AI Explorer